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Lopresti: How the Catholic 7 should get on with their lives

Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports
12:42 p.m. EST March 8, 2013

Providence guard Kris Dunn (3) looks to shoot as Marquette guard Vander Blue (13) defends during the second half of Marquette's 81-71 win in January in Milwaukee. The two schools will remain rivals in the new Big East Conference.(Photo: Jeff Hanisch, USA TODAY Sports)

Story Highlights

The new Big East could be a case study in where basketball really fits into the college sports landscape

Conference will need strong new members and marketing savvy to remain relevant in college sports

The Catholic 7 has big-name schools, but they don't have much NCAA tournament success in recent years

The divorce is official, and the Catholic 7 can get on with the rest of their lives. They'll need a few things now, but not a new name, since they're being awarded full custody of the Big East title in the settlement.

They'll need some new family members.

Reports abound that those will be, in approximate order, Xavier, Butler, Dayton, Saint Louis and Creighton. Nothing wrong with any of those coming along. Good fits, all. The Deity Dozen, though Butler will be the one school not holding Mass.

The Big East is trying to swim upstream as if this were a salmon run, hoping to show that basketball can be a dominant and profitable centerpiece in a football-first age. To pull that off, an annual show of force in the NCAA tournament is absolutely essential.

But here's the thing about the Catholic 7. Big names, big traditions, but not much in the way of tournament fireworks lately. Connecticut, a school left behind, has done most of the heavy lifting. The Catholic 7 haven't produced a national champion in 26 years. They have accounted for only three appearances in the Final Four in the past 23 springs — or five fewer than Duke.

It is rather shocking to think the new Big East would increase its total number of Final Fours this century by 67% if Butler were added.

They'll need a keener appreciation for the world west of the Appalachians.

The new Big East will still be Big, but much less East. If the above schools all join as expected, that means seven of the 12 members — 58% of the league — will be closer to Chicago than New York City.

Time to think a little bit outside the box, not to mention outside the Eastern seaboard. The conference tournament, for example. Madison Square Garden every year? Not necessarily, even with its timeless glamour. They might want to look at United Center in Chicago or Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis every now and then. You expand your geographical base, you have to expand your strategy.

Marquette and its supporters will go from being on the western fringe of a conference to being one of its geographic centers in the new Big East.(Photo: Jeff Hanisch, USA TODAY Sports)

They'll need considerable marketing savvy.

Certainly, they'll want to make a big splash the next two years with their new arrangement. But think what the college landscape will look like soon — a football playoff gobbling up attention into the second week of January. The Big East will have no seat at the table of that T-Rex of an event, as basketball has to fight for notice until midseason.

And did we mention 2014 is a Winter Olympics year? Another headline hog.

They'll need hot new regional rivalries.

Georgetown-Villanova has been appealing for ages, but how does that play out in the Midwestern cornfields? It would be helpful if Xavier and Butler grew edgy at the sight of one another. Or Saint Louis and Creighton could become mutual pests, should they end up the western anchors to the empire. Creighton-Seton Hall doesn't create a lot of buzz, does it?

They'll need revivals from certain teams, to reinvigorate the league profile in the bright-light cities.

That means you, DePaul and St. John's.

They'll need stability.

The painful split is over. Cash register bells have broken up that old gang of theirs. That means the usual repercussions down the line, as conferences scurry to react. In the post-Cold War world, that is what passes for the Domino Theory.

But one day soon, once the Big East replenishes its ranks, can there be peace? That way, when the public asks the question about who's going where, it'll mean the NCAA or NIT tournaments, not which league next season.

The game is the thing. We're about to see how far basketball can take a conference.